Up All Night
by God's Band Geek
Summary: Set during/after episode thirteen "What Happened To Frederick", when Emma comes to comfort Mary.


I own nothing and I'm not making a profit. All characters belong to their rightful creators.

I wouldn't be writing fanfiction if I did. :P

Emma walked into a silent apartment. Mary was nowhere to found downstairs, and Emma started to worry. Ridiculous, panicking thoughts flitted through her mind as she tried to calmly go upstairs to Mary's room. The door was cracked slightly, but Emma couldn't see far enough in so she opened it further. When she saw the brunette lying on her bed relief flooded over her immediately. How funny how quickly she grew fond of her so much Emma thought.

She walked into the room and took off her jacket, wondering what she should do. The air was heavy with guilt and desperation and pure heart breaking pain.

'I'm not your mother.'

'No, according to Henry, I'm yours.'

Their earlier conversation came to her mind. She wanted those words to be true, but the thought of someone close so her own age being her mother always managed to push that want away. But, Emma couldn't help but say in her head, "Mom? Are you okay?" Emma scolded herself and refocused on Mary being Mary and not anyone else.

"You feel like talking about it yet?" She decided to ask. She'd never been in this kind of situation, but she knew it was the right thing to say.

"Nope" Was Mary's tear stained answer. The sigh the word ended with

"You wanna be alone?" Emma knew either way Mary answered her that she couldn't leave her alone.

"Nope" A simple word that signified fresh tears for Mary, and another situation Emma's never faced. Uncertainty crossed her face for a moment until she took action and laid down beside her roommate. She looked at the back of Mary's head, wanting to say something, but she just looked away and up at the ceiling. Their silence continued.

She was at the Wishing Well. There was fog everywhere and it seemed like everything was hiding. Emma started to walk away and find a way out of the fog but she couldn't. She didn't see anything, she couldn't see anything, that is, except for the wishing well. She went back to it and looked down for some reason she didn't know.

"Are you lost?" Emma jumped at the sound of the voice. She turned around in a flash of confusion as she saw that the voice belonged to a woman she hated.

"Regina? What's with the- your- What's going on?"

Regina only smiled an evil and cunning smile. Her outfit was something from another world, a fairy tale more like it. Long and black and designed with just enough frill and feathers and jewels to destroy any idea of this not being a nightmare.

"Why, don't you know? Our final battle?" Emma heard a noise that very close. She looked down at herself which was being dressed in a medieval type army uniform. A beautiful, bejeweled sword appeared in her right hand and a swan encrested shield in the left. Her eyes went wide with overwhelming confusion and fear.

'Why am I not waking up?' She asked herself, but her breath caught in her throat when Regina answered aloud, "Because you're not dreaming."

"EMMA?" An extremely familiar female voice shouted out, then a deep male voice accompanied it. Emma looked around fiercely for the voices, and she spotted them. Snow White and Prince Charming chained to trees. Now Emma's eyes went wide with anger. She turned back around to face, who she now fully understood was, the Evil Queen.

In a voice that would've made the strongest of kingdoms crumble, she demanded, "Let. Them. Go."

"Or what?" The Queen asked in an innocent, sing-song voice.

"Or this." Emma charged toward her opponent, but Regina only grinned, her eyes glowing with her own hatred, then she vanished in a puff of smoke. Emma stopped and looked around in haste, but she only saw the well and her parents. Then a sharp pang went through her stomach and the shrilling voice of Snow split the air.

"MY BABY"!

"Emma"! Mary exclaimed as she was trying to stop Emma's flailing limbs. "Emma! It's okay"! Emma was still dreaming.

Emma fell with a thud, still fully alive. She grabbed at the sword that was going through her and that's when she gave up all hope that she was dreaming. An evil laughter filled the air replacing Snow's scream, and Emma cringed from her hatred and anger. Then she looked up to the queen's face, as Regina knelt down to get in Emma's face to say,"Don't you dare try anything like that again." Then she vanished again, but for good this time.

She woke up.

She gasped and inhaled deeply enjoying the sensation of breathing without a sword plunged into her stomach, and she was covered in a light sweat that made her feel disgusting. She just kept breathing until she was calm enough to notice that she was being held.

Finally Mary noticed Emma's much more quiet state and looked down at her. "Are you okay?" Her voice was overflowing with worry and her eyes were shining with compassion.

"Uhh.." Emma shook her head as if to shake out the nightmare and tried to get out of Mary's comforting arms. "Yeah, I'm fine." Mary gave way and let her arms fall away from Emma, and they both looked at the clock. 1:37.

"Are you sure?" Mary asked turning back to look at her roommate.

"Yes." Emma looked at Mary and gave a small smile to prove her point. "Just a bad dream. Besides, you're the one that needs to be worried about. Are you okay?"

Mary's eyes started glistening again, but it was obvious she was trying to fight off her tears. She was sick and tired of crying and really didn't like crying in front of someone as strong as Emma. "I'm getting there." She smiled a pain filled smile. "I'm getting better."

"I know it's late, or early really-" They both laughed lightly. "But, do you want to talk about it now?"

"Not really. I mean I do, but I just..." Mary looked away and huffed out a discontented sigh.

"It's all gonna be okay Mary. The only thing people can do to you is talk crap. They know you're friends with me. I don't think anybody wants to deal with me." Mary smiled at the thought of Emma beating people up for her. Then another thought came to mind. "My car got vandalized though."

"By who?" Anger seeped into Emma's voice.

"I don't know, but..." Mary started to fidget with her ring.

"But what?"

"Well, David was cleaning the paint off for me when I saw it. Then that's when I got mad at him because he didn't tell her, someone else did. Then..." A tear finally won against her will and rolled down her cheek. Emma instantly put her arm around her, she didn't even think when she did it. It just felt right. "Then I told him that we shouldn't be together." More tears broke through and Emma wrapped both her arms around her and Mary dove her face into Emma's shoulder as sobs wracked her body once again. Emma just held her tight as if to keep her from falling apart.

"Shh... It'll be alright." She rubbed her back gently until Mary's sobs grew softer until she was just lying there letting tears run down her face.

After some silence Mary piped up and said, "I thought you said you weren't my mother." Laughter sounded and lifted their hearts.

"I'm not, but don't children become their parent's parents? You're just getting old."

"Right. That's it." Mary finally smiled from happiness. Then she lifted away from Emma's embrace thinking it was probably uncomfortable for her. Emma did feel a little relieved. "So, now that I've shared and soaked a nice puddle in your shirt." Emma looked down at the said tear stain and laughed it off. "What about your dream? Something pretty bad must've happened." Mary verbally nudged.

"Well,... I was dreaming that I was fighting the evil queen, or Regina, as Henry says, and it was the final battle. There was all this fog and I couldn't see anything but this well until Regina showed up and then I saw you and..." Emma hesitated before saying what she was going to say and changed it. "Prince Charming and you two were chained to these random trees and then and I demanded Regina to let you guys go, and of course she wouldn't so I attacked her, but she disappeared and stabbed me in the back with a sword and you screamed out 'MY BABY'!" Emma was so indulged in the story telling that she didn't see Mary's expression. She was shocked at the fact that Emma dreamt of her and David as her parents, like in Henry's book. "I was in so much pain and I didn't wake up so I thought it was real. Then Regina knelt down in front of me and told me to,'Never try anything like that again.' And then I woke up."

There was a pause of hesitation between them. Then Mary said, "Well. Umm... That's..."

"Crazy?" Emma laughed.

"No not crazy, just..." They said simultaneously, "Crazy." They both laughed, really laughed and they looked at the clock again. 2:03.

"Oh, well." Mary said smiling.

"I guess I'll just go-" Emma sat up and pointed to the door.

"You don't have to." Mary said bolting up quickly. Emma gave her a questioning look, and Mary tried to justify herself. "I mean, if you don't want to go you don't have to."

"Scared of the dark all of the sudden or something?" Emma asked in wonder as she was worried about what her roommate was thinking what all this meant.

"No, I just... I just need a friend." Emma's heart broke at her words. Mary was too innocent and sweet to be in this much pain.

"Okay, I'll stay. Just let me get into some sleep clothes." Mary nodded and slumped down into her pillows. Thoughts of when David and her were together swam through her mind in an effort to make her remember how good she felt with him. She couldn't deny that she did feel better just thinking about the good times with him. Then Emma came back and she brought her baby blanket.

"Are you afraid of the dark all of the sudden?" Mary tried to throw the joke back at her successfully.

"No." Emma said with a smile. "No, I just thought you'd like to sleep with it tonight. It's always made me feel better, no matter what." Emma came over and sat on the bed, her arm outstretched for Mary to grab the blanket from her. Mary looked over it and hugged it tightly to her chest and she tried to imagine herself as a little girl with her own security blanket, but she found that she couldn't. A stumped expression came over her face, but she let it go and thanked Emma. "No problem." Then she went to grab a quilt that was hanging on a chair to sleep with so Mary could use all the comforter. She climbed on the bed again and wrapped herself in a cocoon as Mary turned off the lamp.

"Goodnight" Mary called out in the dark.

"Good morning rather." Emma replied and they laughed at the truth and then fell to sleep. The rest of the day to come was a challenge that Mary knew that she wouldn't have to face alone.


End file.
